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The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has extended the dates related to the auction of spectrum in 1800MHz and 900MHz bands due to the pending issues, including spectrum usage charges (SUC) and a demand from operators seeking more time.

The online auction will now start on February 3, 2014 as against the previous schedule of January 23, 2014. The last date of application withdrawal is now January 27, 2014.

As per the new timelines, Dot will give clarifications to the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) on January 2, and the last date for applying for the spectrum auction has been extended to January 15 from January 4 earlier.

It will publish ownership details of applicants by January 20 and bidder ownership compliance certificate by January 23. The pre-qualification of bidders will be by January 25 and final list of bidders has been fixed for January 29. The mock auction will be held on January 30-31 ahead of the start of the real auction.

Total spectrum put to auction is 46 MHz in 900 MHz band and 403.2 MHz in 1800 MHz band.

“The government is expecting a minimum of Rs 11,300 crore from the upcoming spectrum auction. It has set a revenue target of Rs 40,874.50 crore this fiscal year from spectrum, including auction amount, one-time spectrum charge and annual regular licence fee,” a PTI said.